Get Your Morning Workout Done With These 10 Habits

Get Your Morning Workout Done With These 10 Habits

Benjamin Franklin said it like this “Early to bed, early to rise, will make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”  Why did he say this some 200 + years ago?  Because he knew from his own experiences and watching others, that the ones who got up early, were healthier and more successful.

1. First and foremost you have to remember why you want to get up early and workout.

It starts here.  If you don’t set a goal and establish your reasons for accomplishing a health and fitness goal, then you definitely won’t get up early.  Early is hard.  If it was easy everyone would do it, right?  Your goal for your health and fitness must be so strong and the WHY behind it must be so powerful that nothing will stop you from accomplishing that goal.

2. Go to bed early.

No brainer right?  I have a lot of friends, that deal with insomnia, but really what happens is they have a lot on their mind.  We have all been here before.  As an early riser, I don’t have problems falling asleep, ever.  My only problem is falling asleep too early and getting up too early.  To ensure you get that workout in make sure you are in bed early.

3. Make a commitment.

This sounds weird, but it works.  I sometimes tell my Facebook community, which consists of several people who work out and we all keep each other motivated by posting our runs, our workouts, etc.  What I like to do is post that I can’t wait until the morning to knock out 5K or 10 miles, or what I will accomplish in the gym.  Once I make that statement, I must complete the task because someone will ask me about it and I refuse to say, “Oh, I didn’t get up and get it done.”  Make your commitments out loud, especially if you have accountability partners, which we all should.

4. Friends/Partners

Without a doubt the best workouts I have had in my life have happened when I had a partner to workout with.  Now, I work out too early in the morning to find a partner. If you can find a partner that is motivated like you are and you can hold each other accountable daily to working out, then you will accomplish your fitness goals.

Texting each other the night before with a simple statement is best. Don’t ask: “Are we still working out in the morning?” The brain is weird, if you were thinking or they were thinking about not working out, you just gave them an opt out.  Make a statement.  “Can’t wait to see you in the morning”.  This implies that they will be there.  I am telling you have seen it enough, always make the statement and assume you will be working out in the morning, never ask.  If you ask it gives you both an option to opt out.  The guilt of trying to bail out on the workout is too overwhelming for the mind.

5. Treat.

Treats are nice.  We all have to treat ourselves every now and then.  I have found that when I think about the next day, and what I will do, I will include whether or not I will be eating out.  I will actually think about the potential calories I may take in either through going out to eat or by treating myself after a nice workout in the morning.  The bottom line is that when you burn enough calories through a workout, you can have some wiggle room in your diet.

6. Change your mindset. 

I am not a morning person.  I have heard this at least a thousand times.  None of us our morning people until we become morning people, and shift our mindset.  Say “I am becoming a morning person”, and then become one.
7. Think about your current day.

Think about how busy you were that day and how you wouldn’t have been able to get a workout in that day, if you wouldn’t have done it in the morning.  You have to make time for it, if not the day will be gone before you know it.

8.  How good does it feel.

How does it feel knowing that your workout is in the books and when you get off work, and you can go and have a few drinks with colleagues or dinner with a spouse, or spend some quality time with kids.  I live in an area where there are a lot of runners.  When I am heading home in the evening or sitting out on the patio at one of my favorite restaurants and I see the runners go by, it makes me feel so accomplished that I got mine in that morning and I can enjoy the evening.  It feels great!

9.  Set your workout clothes out. 

Setting out your workout clothes the night before makes it impossible for you to start to run late because you couldn’t find something. Also, let’s face it, before bed we are likely to be a lot more gung ho about our morning workout than we are first thing in the morning.

10.  Set multiple alarms. 

My friend Paul says he sets multiple alarms.  First call is at a certain time and then a last call is about an half hour later.  I have found this works for me as well.  The best thing to do is to bounce up before the alarm goes off and after a certain period of time I am sure this will happen as long as you make it a routine and a habit.

About three years ago I went from being the person that says I will never be an early riser to a person that is now to the opposite extreme in that I want to see how I early I can get up and still get what I need to do throughout the day accomplished.  I accomplish more between 4 and 10 in the morning than I ever did between 4 and 10 in the evening.  There are no distractions in the morning.

Take some of the actions above and see if you can become a morning workout person.